The Dragon's Wrath: A Virtual Dream

Chapter 24: The Journey back to Camp

(Tuesday, March 9th Game Day / Saturday, January 23rd Real Day)

After enjoying a decent meal out in the city, I took a short break from the game to manage my household affairs and basic duties. It wasn't a long break though, and within two hours I was freshly showered with a change of clothes and ready to log back in.

As I strapped into the chair the lights started to dim and the room went black.

The log in process had started and I couldn't help but think that I might be sleeping too much in-game with the mini-naps of 3-4 hours multiple times a day, but it didn't seem to be bothering me yet.

In fact I could say I was sleeping better, since the game almost put you in a dream-state to begin with, it was like falling immediately into REM-cycle or the fifth stage, skipping right past the first four stages.

Yeah, if anything I could say that my sleeping had improved significantly compared to logging-out and sleeping in the real world.

Logging back in I soon found myself where I had left, sitting on a log bench near the town square. The moon was shining brightly and the townsfolk had already burned the bodies of the deceased and continued on with their daily lives; some electing to remodel the lodge as the new tavern and gathering place.

They were pressing on and moving forward without delay; it was an encouraging sight.

Selene had been helping the villagers organize when she noticed me in the distance and came over. As she walked, her hips swayed slightly from side to side, it wasn't exaggerated nor was it really seductive; she didn't really have wide hips to speak of. She wasn't nearly as physically attractive as Katherine, but she had her own charm to her.

In all honesty, her personality was what made her more attractive. She was confident and intelligent yet remained grounded and without ego, she didn't overreact to situations and knew how to play along with my little flirtatious acts.

If anything, I was surprised she willingly kissed me.

We had only known each other for maybe three days in-game, but maybe she felt comfortable with me since I sort of saved her life.

Chemistry is what some people might call it.

All the while though she was still an NPC and I was having conflicting emotions and feelings about the subject. To a degree, I kind of don't care if she's an NPC with an Artificial Intelligence or a Player in the game. At the end of the line the fact remains that she's a moderately physically attractive female with an attractive personality… as long as I remain inside the game there is no difference with the end result.

But in saying that I also realize that it's an NPC… well, as long as I don't delude myself into thinking it's some sort of relationship in the future and continue on with the idea that I'm just enjoying that part of the game like a dating-simulator or something, I should be fine.

That's what I was saying mentally at least, but physically I was feeling a bit deprived. I haven't been dating nor have I had the comfort of a female in quite some time, and here there was a carrot dangling on a stick in front of me. I'm the kind of guy that takes the carrot in short-order, I won't let it dangle and tempt me for long.

Well, I at least didn't let myself sink to the level of visiting the in-game brothels. Those were quite busy during the Alpha and Beta as both male and females were provided for. With relative anonymity during the testing phase and the staff actually needing feedback, it was an easy decision for most.

Yeah, those brothels were something else.

Though I never participated, I did walk by one out of curiosity for their design.

"Enjoying the scenery," as I like to call it.

Needless to say, there were quite a lot of… fetishes accounted for. And it seems out of some form of morality or guilty conscience, all of the NPCs that worked the brothels had an extremely limited AI while operating primarily off a Virtual Intelligence system instead. I guess that way players could do whatever tickled their fancy without the NPC having any complaints.

Selene finally made it over to me and tilted her head slightly to the side and with a hand on her hip asked a simple question, "So, where to now?"

It was a simple question with a not too simple answer as I was stuck wondering if I could suggest a private room for two or if that moment had long since passed.

In the end I figured it was the latter rather than the former, "I bet Katherine is worried sick right about now. And I'm worried she might have eaten all of the supplies I left with her as well."

Selene seemed to be in agreeance, "You said it would take three days?"

"It will take almost six hours of straight travel at a very fast pace to get there, so it depends on how fast we travel."

"In your wounded state?"

"Yeah, it might take three days."

If I was healthy I could simply run half the distance and take a break, then repeat it again to get there within a day without baggage.

Unfortunately I wasn't healthy, which was typical, and I had some excessive baggage in the form of an iron cauldron.

Well, it didn't matter how long it would take, so long as we kept moving.